France and England in North America, Part III: La Salle, Discovery of The Great West
raise men and prepare for war. La Salle suspected them; and seeing that
the Iroquois, in consequence of their intrigues, were in an excited
state, he induced the governor to come to Fort Frontenac to pacify them.
He accordingly did so; and a council was held, which ended in a complete
restoration of confidence on the part of the Iroquois.[91] At this
council they accused the two Jesuits, Bruyas and Pierron,[92] of
spreading reports that the French were preparing to attack them. La
Salle thought that the object of the intrigue was to make the Iroquois
jealous of him, and engage Frontenac in expenses which would offend the
King. After La Salle and the governor had lost credit by the rupture,
the Jesuits would come forward as pacificators, in the full assurance
that they could restore quiet, and appear in the attitude of saviors of
the colony.
La Salle, pursues his reporter, went on to say that about this time a
quantity of hemlock and verdigris was given him in a salad; and that the
guilty person was a man in his employ named Nicolas Perrot, otherwise
called Jolycoeur, who confessed the crime.[93] The memoir adds that La
Salle, who recovered from the effects of the poison, wholly exculpates
the Jesuits.
This attempt, which was not, as we shall see, the only one of the kind
made against La Salle, is alluded to by him in a letter to a friend at
Paris, written in Canada when he was on the point of departure on his
great expedition to descend the Mississippi. The following is an extract
from it:
[Sidenote: LA SALLE EXCULPATES THE JESUITS.]
"I hope to give myself the honor of sending you a more particular
account of this enterprise when it shall have had the success which I
hope for it; but I have need of a strong protection for its support. It
traverses the commercial operations of certain persons, who will find it
hard to endure it. They intended to make a new Paraguay in these parts,
and the route which I close against them gave them facilities for an
advantageous correspondence with Mexico. This check will infallibly be a
mortification to them; and you know how they deal with whatever opposes
them. _Nevertheless, I am bound to render them the justice to say that
the poison which was given me was not at all of their instigation._ The
person who was conscious of the guilt, believing that I was their enemy
because he saw that our sentiments were opposed, thought to exculpate
himself by accusing them, and I confess that at the time I was not sorry
to have this indication of their ill-will; but having afterwards
carefully examined the affair, I clearly discovered the falsity of the
accusation which this rascal had made against them. I nevertheless
pardoned him, in order not to give notoriety to the affair; as the mere
suspicion might sully their reputation, to which I should scrupulously
avoid doing the slightest injury unless I thought it necessary to the
good of the public, and unless the fact were fully proved. Therefore,
Monsieur, if anybody shared the suspicion which I felt, oblige me by
undeceiving him."[94]
This letter, so honorable to La Salle, explains the statement made in
the memoir, that, notwithstanding his grounds of complaint against the
Jesuits, he continued to live on terms of courtesy with them,
entertained them at his fort, and occasionally corresponded with them.
The writer asserts, however, that they intrigued with his men to induce
them to desert,--employing for this purpose a young man named
Deslauriers, whom they sent to him with letters of recommendation. La
Salle took him into his service; but he soon after escaped, with several
other men, and took refuge in the Jesuit missions.[95] The object of the
intrigue is said to have been the reduction of La Salle's garrison to a
number less than that which he was bound to maintain, thus exposing him
to a forfeiture of his title of possession.
[Sidenote: RENEWED INTRIGUES.]
He is also stated to have declared that Louis Joliet was an
impostor,[96] and a _donné_ of the Jesuits,--that is, a man who worked
for them without pay; and, further, that when he, La Salle, came to
court to ask for privileges enabling him to pursue his discoveries, the
Jesuits represented in advance to the minister Colbert that his head was
turned, and that he was fit for nothing but a mad-house. It was only by
the aid of influential friends that he was at length enabled to gain an
audience.
Here ends this remarkable memoir, which, criticise it as we may, does
not exaggerate the jealousies and enmities that beset the path of the
discoverer.
FOOTNOTES:
[75] _Ante_, p. 17.
[76] Louis-Armand de Bourbon, second Prince de Conti. The author of the
memoir seems to have been Abbé Renaudot, a learned churchman.
[77] Extracts from this have already been given in connection with La
Salle's supposed discovery of the Mississippi. _Ante_, p. 29.
[78] "Tous ceux de mes amis qui l'ont vu luy trouve beaucoup d'esprit et
un très-grand sens; il ne parle guère que des choses sur lesquelles on
l'interroge; il les dit en très-peu de mots et très-bien
circonstanciées; il distingue parfaitement ce qu'il scait avec
certitude, de ce qu'il scait avec quelque mélange de doute. Il avoue
sans aucune façon ne pas savoir ce qu'il ne scait pas, et quoyque je luy
aye ouy dire plus de cinq ou six fois les mesme choses à l'occasion de
quelques personnes qui ne les avaient point encore entendues, je les luy
ay toujours ouy dire de la mesme manière. En un mot je n'ay jamais ouy
parler personne dont les paroles portassent plus de marques de vérité."
[79] "Il y a une autre chose qui me déplait, qui est l'entière
dépendence dans laquelle les Prêtres du Séminaire de Québec et le Grand
Vicaire de l'Evêque sont pour les Pères Jésuites, car il ne fait pas la
moindre chose sans leur ordre; ce qui fait qu'indirectement ils sont les
maîtres de ce qui regarde le spirituel, qui, comme vous savez, est une
grande machine pour remuer tout le reste."--_Lettre de Frontenac à
Colbert, 2 Nov., 1672._
[80] "Ces réligieux [_les Récollets_] sont fort protégés partout par le
comte de Frontenac, gouverneur du pays, et à cause de cela assez
maltraités par l'évesque, parceque la doctrine de l'évesque et des
Jésuites est que les affaires de la Réligion chrestienne n'iront point
bien dans ce pays-là que quand le gouverneur sera créature des Jésuites,
ou que l'évesque sera gouverneur."--_Mémoire sur Mr. de la Salle_.
[81] "Ils [_les Jésuites_] refusent l'absolution à ceux qui ne veulent
pas promettre de n'en plus vendre [_de l'eau-de-vie_], et s'ils meurent
en cet étât, ils les privent de la sépulture ecclésiastique; au
contraire ils se permettent à eux-mêmes sans aucune difficulté ce mesme
trafic quoique toute sorte de trafic soit interdite à tous les
ecclésiastiques par les ordonnances du Roy, et par une bulle expresse du
Pape. La Bulle et les ordonnances sont notoires, et quoyqu'ils cachent
le trafic qu'ils font d'eau-de-vie, M. de la Salle prétend qu'il ne
l'est pas moins; qu'outre la notoriété il en a des preuves certaines, et
qu'il les a surpris dans ce trafic, et qu'ils luy ont tendu des pièges
pour l'y surprendre.... Ils ont chassé leur valet Robert à cause qu'il
révéla qu'ils en traitaient jour et nuit."--_Ibid._ The writer says that
he makes this last statement, not on the authority of La Salle, but on
that of a memoir made at the time when the intendant, Talon, with whom
he elsewhere says that he was well acquainted, returned to France. A
great number of particulars are added respecting the Jesuit trade in
furs.
[82] Albanel was prominent among the Jesuit explorers at this time. He
is best known by his journey up the Saguenay to Hudson's Bay in 1672.
[83] "Pour vous parler franchement, ils [_les Jésuites_] songent autant
à la conversion du Castor qu'à celle des âmes."--_Lettre de Frontenac à
Colbert, 2 Nov., 1672_.
In his despatch of the next year, he says that the Jesuits ought to
content themselves with instructing the Indians in their old missions,
instead of neglecting them to make new ones in countries where there are
"more beaver-skins to gain than souls to save."
[84] These forts were built by them, and were necessary to the security
of their missions.
[85] François Xavier de Laval-Montmorency, first bishop of Quebec, was a
prelate of austere character. His memory is cherished in Canada by
adherents of the Jesuits and all ultramontane Catholics.
[86] This Madame Bourdon was the widow of Bourdon, the engineer (see
"The Jesuits in North America," 297). If we may credit the letters of
Marie de l'Incarnation, she had married him from a religious motive, in
order to charge herself with the care of his motherless children;
stipulating in advance that he should live with her, not as a husband,
but as a brother. As may be imagined, she was regarded as a most devout
and saint-like person.
[87] "Il y a dans Québec une congrégation de femmes et de filles qu'ils
[_les Jésuites_] appellent la sainte famille, dans laquelle on fait
voeu sur les Saints Evangiles de dire tout ce qu'on sait de bien et de
mal des personnes qu'on connoist. La Supérieure de cette compagnie
s'appelle Madame Bourdon; une Mde. d'Ailleboust est, je crois,
l'assistante et une Mde. Charron, la Trésorière. La Compagnie
s'assemble tous les Jeudis dans la Cathédrale, à porte fermée, et là
elles se disent les unes aux autres tout ce qu'elles ont appris. C'est
une espèce d'Inquisition contre toutes les personnes qui ne sont pas
unies avec les Jésuites. Ces personnes sont accusées de tenir secret ce
qu'elles apprennent de mal des personnes de leur party et de n'avoir pas
la mesme discretion pour les autres."--_Mémoire sur M^r. de la Salle_.
The Madame d'Ailleboust mentioned above was a devotee like Madame
Bourdon, and, in one respect, her history was similar. See "The Jesuits
in North America," 360.
The association of the Sainte Famille was founded by the Jesuit
Chaumonot at Montreal in 1663. Laval, Bishop of Quebec, afterwards
encouraged its establishment at that place; and, as Chaumonot himself
writes, caused it to be attached to the cathedral. _Vie de Chaumonot_,
83. For its establishment at Montreal, see Faillon, _Vie de Mlle.
Mance_, i. 233.
"Ils [_les Jésuites_] ont tous une si grande envie de savoir tout ce qui
se fait dans les familles qu'ils ont des Inspecteurs à gages dans la
Ville, qui leur rapportent tout ce qui se fait dans les maisons," etc.,
etc.--_Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1673._
[88] Mention has been made (p. 88, _note_) of the report set on foot by
the Jesuit Dablon, to prevent the building of the fort.
[89] This story is told at considerable length, and the advances of the
lady particularly described.
[90] Letter of La Salle, in possession of M. Margry.
[91] Louis XIV. alludes to this visit, in a letter to Frontenac, dated
28 April, 1677. "I cannot but approve," he writes, "of what you have
done, in your voyage to Fort Frontenac, to reconcile the minds of the
Five Iroquois Nations, and to clear yourself from the suspicions they
had entertained, and from the motives that might induce them to make
war." Frontenac's despatches of this year, as well as of the preceding
and following years, are missing from the archives.
In a memoir written in November, 1680, La Salle alludes to "le désir que
l'on avoit que Monseigneur le Comte de Frontenac fit la guerre aux
Iroquois." See Thomassy, _Géologie Pratique de la Louisiane_, 203.
[92] Bruyas was about this time stationed among the Onondagas. Pierron
was among the Senecas. He had lately removed to them from the Mohawk
country. _Relation des Jésuites, 1673-79_, 140 (Shea). Bruyas was also
for a long time among the Mohawks.
[93] This puts the character of Perrot in a new light; for it is not